Card Sharks

warehouse. So they knew the secret was out. But how did they find him here?'

'That servant my father mentioned. He's probably in their pay to spy on him.'

For the first time, though, one mystery finally fell into place: why the daughter of a rich, powerful man had come alone to Jokertown for an abortion instead of seeking out the illegal abortionists available to the wealthy. Jokertown was the one place where her father had no business associates or social contacts who might have gotten word back to him.

Maybe she had taken a measure of revenge on her father two nights ago by having sex with a joker. After all, I was just the kind of person her father hated most. She could not have planned on finding someone to wind up in bed with, but I remembered that she had not hesitated.

Now it made a twisted kind of sense. I felt a sinking feeling inside. As I had suspected in the beginning, having a nat girl from her background truly like me was just impossible.

'What about … us?' I asked her timidly.

'I have to go back and deal with my brothers now. We'll be inheriting stuff and dealing with lawyers and who knows what. I don't even know who my legal guardian will be.'

'I meant, uh, you and me.'

Fleur hurried around the body of her father, her ponytail bouncing. I hurried after her in the breezy darkness. She was heading quickly for the street and didn't look sleepy now at all.

'Can't we talk?' I nearly had to jog to keep up with her.

She didn't say anything. In fact, she didn't even wait to reach the edge of Jokertown before trying to hail a cab. Suddenly her steps grew wobbly and she staggered to her right, dizzily. I grabbed her arm and steadied her. We stopped by the curb.

'I'll go straight home from here this time,' she said quickly, still avoiding my eyes. She waved over my head and a cab suddenly swerved over to us.

'I, uh, I love you.'

'Oh, Chuck.' She finally turned her beautiful face toward me again. Tears came to her brown eyes as she looked at me. For one very long moment, she actually seemed to see me as a regular guy.

Maybe that was the only second in my entire life that I actually forgot what I looked like — just for a fleeting second.

Then Fleur broke the gaze. The cab had pulled up next to us. Without looking back, she yanked open the door and ducked inside the cab, slamming the door. The cab roared away up the street, taking her away forever.

'… Never knew what I missed until I kissed ya. …

The Ashes of Memory 2

'You never saw her again?' Hannah asked.

Tanaka shrugged, shook his head, blinked. 'A little different than the movie version, huh?' he said at last. 'All the names were changed. They wrote me out, of course, leaving Rainey as the hero who uncovers it all. The Fleur character was older and she got involved with the reporter, not some ugly joker. And they hinted at the incest angle without ever saying it, but there wasn't any abortion. It was really weird for me, watching Marilyn Monroe … I always liked her, but this was spooky. …'

Hannah took a breath. 'Why didn't Lansky ever try it again? If this group of people hated jokers so much, why'd they give up their grand plan?'

Another shrug. 'I think the exposure in the paper scared them off. Rainey exposed the insurance scam, so that angle wouldn't work anymore. There wouldn't have been the financial payoff. That plus the murder …'

'Maybe I should talk to Rainey.'

'You'll need someone who does seances. He was killed a month later, found with a couple dozen bullet holes in a Jokertown gutter.'

'Did the police ever charge Lansky with the murder?'

'You're kidding, right?' Tanaka sniffed. 'They arrested two of his goons for it; they did a few years. Lansky was killed in the mid-sixties when he tried to muscle in on the Gambione family's holdings in Cuba.'

'So everyone's dead. Doesn't leave me much.'

'There's still a few around, but mostly that's right. Waffle never knew anything; besides, he's still just a street punk. Cheetah's not around anymore. Troll's over at the J-Town Clinic, he might talk with you, and Peter Choy, well, he owns this place now. You want to check with him, he'll be in tomorrow.'

Hannah shook her head. 'Thanks for the information, but I don't think I'll need it.' She reached for the recorder, recorded the date and time again, and switched it off. She closed her notebook and put it back in her purse. She got to her feet. She hesitated — c'mon, girl, you'd do it for anyone else after an interview — then held out her hand to Tanaka. When he didn't move right away, she quickly brought the hand back. 'Thanks for talking with me,' she said. 'I appreciate your time.'

He stared at her from behind the glasses. 'You think this has anything to do with the fire? I'm just curious,' he added when she didn't answer. 'After all, you came and asked me about the movie.'

'I think there are a lot of sick people out there,' Hannah replied. 'One of them hated jokers enough to want to burn down a church when there were a lot of them inside. I don't need a conspiracy for that. There's nothing similar in Lansky's plot and what happened a couple days ago. The simplest solution is that we have a lone torch, probably a psychotic.'

Tanaka blinked. His buck teeth gnawed at the flesh of his lower lip. 'Nothing's ever simple in Jokertown,' he said.

***

'You talked with him?'

The voice was eager and all too familiar and, once more, behind her. Hannah spun around on the street outside the Four Seas. Quasiman was looking at her expectantly, his head leaning against one shoulder.

Hannah moved quickly back from him, scowling. 'Do you have to keep sneaking up on me like that?'

'I'm sorry, Hannah,' Quasiman said. The hurt and apology in his voice made Hannah regret her irritation. She told herself it was only because the meeting with Tanaka had been such a waste of time. She wanted nothing but to get off the streets of Jokertown. By now, the lab should have had time to identify the accelerant…. 'Did you meet Chop-Chop?'

'Yes, I talked with him.

'Then you know.' Quasiman sounded relieved, as if he'd expected Chop-Chop's little tale to have convinced her of something.

'I know there are people who hate jokers, but I knew that before. About the fire, I don't know anything else.'

'Chop-Chop wouldn't tell you?'

'As far as I know, he told me everything. I just don't see that it has anything to do with the fire at your church. I'm sorry.'

'It all connects, Hannah. I've seen it; I just can't hold all the threads together in my head. I've been trying so hard….'

'You keep saying that. If that's what you believe, that's fine, but you're on your own now. If you can see the future, then you should have seen yourself investigating this ancient link alone. If there's a connection, it's up to you to find it. I gave you my hour, and I'm done. Now go away.'

'But I can't, Hannah,' Quasiman answered, and his voice was nearly a wail. 'I can't. My mind … it won't hang on to things. It's hard for me to concentrate. I'm not good at putting things together — too scattered.' He reached toward her and she skittered backward, nearly colliding with an Asian woman walking past. A joker watching from the nearby bus stop cackled.

'Just stay away, damn it!'